The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s basketball team will look to add another huge road Big Ten win to their past one when they head to Ann Arbor to face the #6 ranked Michigan Wolverines on Monday evening.
Minnesota enters the game 1-1 in Big Ten action after blowing what should have been a home upset of then #7 Maryland at Williams Arena in December, and picking up a big road win at Indiana last Monday 71-48. They will have a huge task ahead of them ahead of the #6 ranked Wolverines who will likely drop in the polls when the new ones come out after Monday after a 64-52 loss at Washington this weekend.
Minnesota is off to a 10-3 start on the season. Minnesota has won their last four games after that double OT loss to Maryland including a dominant performance in Bloomington against the Hoosiers. Amaya Battle played her best game of the season leading he Gophers with 20 points in the win. While Battle has not been scoring on the same clip as the past few seasons, the rest of her game has picked up. She has picked up a lot of the slack from the loss to Mallory Heyer on the boards and in fact leads Minnesota in rebounds this season with 102 and is averaging 7.8 per game. Tori McKinney added 17 on her 20th birthday in the win as well. McKinney has made a significant impact during her sophomore season, improving her shooting percentage from .460 to .500. She is averaging 13.2 points per game and is the only Gopher to reach double figures in every game this season except two.
How big was the win in Bloomington for the Gophers? It marked their first victory in Bloomington since Feb. 6, 2019, and the first time the Gophers have recorded consecutive wins over the Hoosiers since the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. In addition, it was Minnesota’s largest road victory in a conference game since a 78-50 win over Wisconsin on Jan. 17, 2019.
The win helped the Gophers move up in the NET rankings that helps determine the NCAA Tournament field. Minnesota now ranks #15 in the country in the NET, and is of nine Big Ten teams ranked in the top 25. The Gopher have done it by being fundamentally sound—-except for the last few minutes of a certain overtime and double overtime period. The Gophers rank sixth nationally and third in the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio (235/128), second nationally and first in the conference in fewest turnovers per game (9.8), and second nationally and first in the Big Ten in scoring defense (49.9 points per game).
Michigan has taken another step forward this season under head coach Kim Barnes Arico and their trio of talented sophomores. Olivia Olsen is a Benilde St. Margaret grad and has been one of the best players in the conference so far this season for the Wolverines. She leads Michigan at 17.8 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game. Her teammate Syla Swords is another star averaging Syla Swords is averaging 14.5 points per game and is deadly from beyond the arc shooting 35.2%. The third of that trio of talented sophomores is Mila Holloway who averages 12.0 point per game and has a 2-1 assist to turnover ratio as their point guard.
If the Wolverines have an achilles heel it is their free throw shooting. They have been horrible from the charity stripe this season shooting just 64.6% as a team. It nearly cost them a pair of games on their Pacific Northwest road trip last weekend. Along with their loss at Washington, it took double OT for the Wolverines to defeat Oregon 92-87. In that game Michigan was a dreadful 16-38 (42%) from the stripe. The Ducks were not much better shooting 58% from the free throw line and it cost them the upset.
If the Gophers want to pull an upset of their own they are going to need to play lock down defense, and dominate the boards. Michigan is averaging 44 rebounds a game and is +12.6 this season in the rebounding margin. Minnesota is averaging 42 board per game and is a +10 in the margin. Whomever can control the game and limit second chance opportunities will go a long way towards a win. Someone for Minnesota is going to need to have a splashy game shooting. Could be Battle, could be McKinney, could be Mara Braun who is still waiting for a big breakout game in her return from her foot injury, or most likely it could be Grace Grocholski who is shooting an astronomical 50% from three point range this season at 31-62.
Minnesota leads the all-time series with the Wolverines 36-34 with Michigan holding a 18-15 edge in Ann Arbor. Minnesota’s last road in in Crisler Arena came in 2024 when Grocholski scored 19 points, Braun added 17 and Battle finished with 13 in an 82-66 victory. Monday’s tip is set for a 5:30 Central start and the game will air live on Big Ten Network.
